


Death

by AutisticWriter



Series: Banana Fish Angst Week [1]
Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Anti shippers don't interact, Banana Fish Angst Week 2019, Canonical Character Death, Character Death, Crying, Established Relationship, Families of Choice, Ficlet, Friendship, Grief/Mourning, Heavy Angst, Hugs, Loss, Multi, Okumura Eiji Needs a Hug, Post-Canon, Prompt Fic, Vomiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-10
Updated: 2019-01-10
Packaged: 2019-10-07 22:58:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17374811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AutisticWriter/pseuds/AutisticWriter
Summary: Eiji doesn’t even know how to cope when he and Ibe get news soon after landing back in Japan. Ibe tries to help, but he doesn’t know either.[Prompt: Death]





	Death

_“Ei-chan,” Ibe-san said, his voice thick and his eyes fixed on the ground. “That was Max… uh… he gave me some very bad news. Ash… Ash is dead.”_

Those words rattle around his brain hours later, and Eiji doesn’t know what to do. He vomited earlier and keeps randomly breaking down sobbing, but he can’t actually process this.

How can Ash be dead?

_“Ash is dead.”_

Vomit burns in his throat, and Eiji gags. His heart pounding, he hauls himself out of his chair, ignoring the pain of his still-healing wound that pulses in his abdomen, and lurches into the bathroom. As Eiji coughs up nothing but stomach acid, he screws his eyes up, the pain in his chest almost as bad as the pain in his injured abdomen. Why did this have to happen?

Eiji actually screamed when Ibe-san told him that horrific news, a cracking gasp escaping him as his hands flew up to his face. He didn’t care that he was sat in his wheelchair outside a busy airport and people stared at him for making a scene in public, fully focused on those three, horrific words. They ran through his head over and over again, and Eiji nearly threw up down his clothes. Even now, that conversation still makes him nauseated.

They were barely out of the airport before Ibe-san’s cell phone rang, and they both froze. Eiji couldn’t hear the conversation, but he heard the intake of breath and felt him stumble. And when the call was over, Ibe-san had stared at the ground and said, “That was Max… uh… he gave me some very bad news. Ash…”

And that’s how he ended up sobbing into Ibe-san’s chest in public, horrified and scared and hoping this was all some sort of mistake.

_“Ash is dead.”_

_“Ash is dead.”_

_“Ash is dead.”_

But it wasn’t a mistake. It is true.

Once he has stopped gagging, Eiji stumbles out of the bathroom and back to his seat. Ibe-san told him more in the taxi on the way home, about how they found Ash dead from blood loss in the library, a stab wound in his abdomen. And as much as he tries, Eiji can’t get that horrific image out of his mind.

It’s just… it’s not fair. All the horrific things Ash had been through were finally over and Ash was supposed to get a happy life from now on. And then…

He got murdered.

He is dead.

More tears leak from bloodshot eyes, and Eiji sobs into his trembling hands.

He gave Ash that airline ticket, but Ash never showed up at the airport and Eiji had to fly back to Japan without him. Did Ash never get a chance to read his letter and see the ticket? Did he read it and decide not to come? Or… or did he decide to com only to get murdered – by blood loss from stabbing, an awful way to die – before he even got the chance? All of these options are fucked up and distressing, but it is probably the last one. Because that one is the most agonising and this is Ash’s he’s talking about and the universe clearly doesn’t want Ash to be happy.

“Ei-chan?”

Eiji sniffs, flinching. Was that Ibe-san’s voice? But, but didn’t Ibe-san leave after dropping Eiji off at his house? Did he decide to stay?

“Y-Yes,” Eiji calls, his voice quiet and thick and hoarse from throwing up and sobbing. “You can come in.”

The door opens, and Ibe-san walks in. like Eiji, his eyes are red and sore, and he looks exhausted.

“What are you…?” Eiji mumbles, but Ibe-san puts a finger to his own lips.

“Your family wanted a detailed explanation of everything that happened to you, so I never got a chance to leave. And… well, I wanted to see you again, Ei-chan,” he says. Ibe-san sits down beside Eiji, giving him the saddest smile he has ever seen. “This is terrible for you, and, well, I’m not the best at this sort of thing, but…” He places a hand on Eiji’s shoulder. “You don’t have to go through this alone, Ei-chan.”

Eiji stares at Ibe-san, a man he honestly feels closer to than his family members after everything they have been through together, and his eyes fill with tears again. And as he sobs into Ibe-san’s shoulder, Eiji thinks he feels tears dripping onto his head.

**Author's Note:**

> If you want me to write you a short fic, drop in a prompt at my [personal prompt meme](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/AutisticWriters_Personal_Prompt_Meme)!


End file.
